They are just straight up not paying loyalties! "Disneyâs argument is that they have purchased the rights but not the obligations of the contract."
This is seriously dangerous to creators
Read the letter from Alan Dean Foster:
We have a lot in common, you and I. We share a birthday: November 18. My dadâs nickname was Mickey. Thereâs more.
When you purchased Lucasfilm you acquired the rights to some books I wrote. STAR WARS, the novelization of the very first film. SPLINTER OF THE MINDâS EYE, the first sequel novel. You owe me royalties on these books. You stopped paying them.
When you purchased 20th Century Fox, you eventually acquired the rights to other books I had written. The novelizations of ALIEN, ALIENS, and ALIEN 3. Youâve never paid royalties on any of these, or even issued royalty statements for them.
All these books are all still very much in print. They still earn money. For you. When one company buys another, they acquire its liabilities as well as its assets. Youâre certainly reaping the benefits of the assets. Iâd very much like my miniscule (though itâs not small to me) share.
You want me to sign an NDA (Non-disclosure agreement) before even talking. Iâve signed a lot of NDAs in my 50-year career. Never once did anyone ever ask me to sign one prior to negotiations. For the obvious reason that once you sign, you can no longer talk about the matter at hand. Every one of my representatives in this matter, with many, many decades of experience in such business, echo my bewilderment.
You continue to ignore requests from my agents. You continue to ignore queries from SFWA, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. You continue to ignore my legal representatives. I know this is what gargantuan corporations often do. Ignore requests and inquiries hoping the petitioner will simply go away. Or possibly die. But Iâm still here, and I am still entitled to what you owe me. Including not to be ignored, just because Iâm only one lone writer. How many other writers and artists out there are you similarly ignoring?
My wife has serious medical issues and in 2016 I was diagnosed with an advanced form of cancer. We could use the money. Not charity: just what Iâm owed. Iâve always loved Disney. The films, the parks, growing up with the Disneyland TV show. I donât think Unca Walt would approve of how you are currently treating me. Maybe someone in the right position just hasnât received the word, though after all these months of ignored requests and queries, thatâs hard to countenance. Or as a guy named Bob Iger saidâŚ.
âThe way you do anything is the way you do everything.â
